Nitro MAC(French acronym for continuous atmospheric measurements of nitrogenous compounds) is an instrument which has been developed for the semi-continuous measurement of atmospheric nitrous acid(HONO). This inst...Nitro MAC(French acronym for continuous atmospheric measurements of nitrogenous compounds) is an instrument which has been developed for the semi-continuous measurement of atmospheric nitrous acid(HONO). This instrument relies on wet chemical sampling and detection using high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)-visible absorption at540 nm. Sampling proceeds by dissolution of gaseous HONO in a phosphate buffer solution followed by derivatization with sulfanilamide/N-(1-naphthyl)-ethylenediamine. The performance of this instrument was found to be as follows: a detection limit of around 3 ppt with measurement uncertainty of 10% over an analysis time of 10 min. Intercomparison was made between the instrument and a long-path absorption photometer(LOPAP) during two experiments in different environments. First, air was sampled in a smog chamber with concentrations up to 18 ppb of nitrous acid. Nitro MAC and LOPAP measurements showed very good agreement. Then, in a second experiment, ambient air with HONO concentrations below250 ppt was sampled. While Nitro MAC showed its capability of measuring HONO in moderate and highly polluted environments, the intercomparison results in ambient air highlighted that corrections must be made for minor interferences when low concentrations are measured.展开更多
基金supported by EU Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) Eurochamp program (grant number 505968)EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Eurochamp-2 program (grant number 228335)+2 种基金the NeoRad program from the French National Agency for Research (ANR-07-2/21-8908)the PhotoBat project from the Primequal program of the French Ministry of Environment (Primequal-project number 19599)the PhotoPaq LIFE + program (LIFE 08/ENV/F/000487 PHOTOPAQ)
文摘Nitro MAC(French acronym for continuous atmospheric measurements of nitrogenous compounds) is an instrument which has been developed for the semi-continuous measurement of atmospheric nitrous acid(HONO). This instrument relies on wet chemical sampling and detection using high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)-visible absorption at540 nm. Sampling proceeds by dissolution of gaseous HONO in a phosphate buffer solution followed by derivatization with sulfanilamide/N-(1-naphthyl)-ethylenediamine. The performance of this instrument was found to be as follows: a detection limit of around 3 ppt with measurement uncertainty of 10% over an analysis time of 10 min. Intercomparison was made between the instrument and a long-path absorption photometer(LOPAP) during two experiments in different environments. First, air was sampled in a smog chamber with concentrations up to 18 ppb of nitrous acid. Nitro MAC and LOPAP measurements showed very good agreement. Then, in a second experiment, ambient air with HONO concentrations below250 ppt was sampled. While Nitro MAC showed its capability of measuring HONO in moderate and highly polluted environments, the intercomparison results in ambient air highlighted that corrections must be made for minor interferences when low concentrations are measured.